Language-in-education policies in Southeast Asia Kimmo Kosonen SIL International & Payap University Chiang Mai, Thailand

Many ethnolinguistic minority (and other) groups face a ‘language barrier’ in education UNESCO, UNICEF and many NGOs strongly support the use of learners’ first language as the initial media of instruction. See e.g. UNESCO: Education in Multilingual World UNICEF: Ensuring the Rights of Indigenous Children.

‘Language barrier’ – Access

60 Million Out-of-School Girls (Lewin & Lockheed, 2007) Nearly 70% of out-of-school girls belong to the ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial and other minorities, Many ethnolinguistic minorities are poor in remote rural areas, Significant increases in primary education have not helped these “doubly disadvantaged” girls, Language of education is a reason for exclusion, Mother tongue-based bilingual education can help get girls in school and learn. --------------------------------------------------------------------- World Bank (2005): “50% of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home”

‘Language barrier’ - Quality Thailand – surveys on educational quality Minority children with poor Standard Thai skills had 50% lower learning results than Thai-speaking students in all main subjects About 13% of Grade 2 students could not read or write Standard Thai Over 25% of students in 10 education areas have problems in reading and writing Standard Thai A reason: teachers and students speak different languages

Quality of Literacy in OECD’s PISA (2000-2002) report In Indonesia 69% of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest of five proficiency levels for reading literacy. (94% at level 2 or below) In Thailand the figure was 37% (74% at level 2 or below) http://www.pisa.oecd.org

Language-in-education policy & practice: Language policy Legislation on (and/or practice of) the use of languages in a society Language-in-education policy & practice: Language (or medium) of instruction (LoI) Language of literacy

Key Concepts Mother tongue – first / home language – L1 Local & regional language Subject of study vs. language of instruction Oral use of a language An auxiliary language helping learners understand Bilingual / multilingual education (MLE) Mother tongue- / L1-based MLE First language first MLE Mother tongue as a ‘bridge’

Begin in the mother tongue of the learner and promote full, continuing literacy in the mother tongue and oral and literacy skills in the additional languages of education. It is found that the most effective programmes maintain the use of the mother tongue for as long as possible – up to six years or more. The first language of the learner should be used not only for basic literacy but also to support transfer of learning to additional languages throughout schooling.

Sustainable strong programmes of mother tongue-based multilingual education … What do they look like?

Components of a sustainable MLE programme

The World According to Linguistic Diversity The New York Times, 19 July 2005 Data: Ethnologue, 2005

Number of Languages spoken in Asia Country Languages Indonesia 742 India 427 China 241 Philippines 180 Malaysia 147 Nepal 125 Myanmar 113 Vietnam 104 Lao PDR 86 Thailand 83 Pakistan 77 Iran 75 Afghanistan 51 Bangladesh 46 Kazakhstan 43 Country Languages Uzbekistan 40 Tajikistan 33 Kyrgyzstan 32 Bhutan 31 Singapore 30 Turkmenistan 27 Cambodia 24 Timor Leste 19 Brunei 19 Japan 16 Mongolia 15 Sri Lanka 7 Korea, South 2 Maldives 2 Korea, North 1 TOTAL: ~ 2200 Source: Ethnologue (2005) (30 countries)

National or Official Languages in Asia Portuguese, Russian 2, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi 2, Sinhala, Southern Pashto, Tajiki, Tamil 2, Telugu, Tetum, Thai, Turkmen, Urdu 2, Vietnamese, Western Farsi Assamese, Bengali (Bangla) 2, Bodo, Dogri, Dzongkha, Eastern Farsi (Dari), Eastern Punjabi, English 4 (1), Filipino, Gujarati, Gurung, Halh Mongolian, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Kannada, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Khmer, Konkani, Korean 2, Lao, Maithili, Malay 3, Malayalam, Maldivian (Diwehi), Mandarin Chinese 2, Marathi, Meitei, Myanma, Nepali 2, Northern Uzbek, Oriya, (50 languages) (22 in India) Source: Ethnologue (2005)

Few monolingual nations Linguistic diversity is evident Few monolingual nations Many education systems use only one language

Official / national language Country Official / national language Brunei Darussalam Standard Malay, English Cambodia Khmer Indonesia Indonesian Lao PDR Lao Malaysia Malay Myanmar Burmese (Myanmar, Bamar) Philippines Filipino, English Singapore English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil Thailand Thai (de facto national language) Timor Leste Portuguese, Tetum (Eng. and Indo. working la) Vietnam Vietnamese

Country Minority languages in the Constitution Brunei Darussalam No (1959) Cambodia No (1993) Indonesia Yes (1945), RLs respected & preserved Lao PDR No (1991) Malaysia Yes (1957), preserve & sustain the use & study Myanmar Yes (1974), ? (2007) Philippines Yes (1987), LLs auxiliary languages Singapore Yes (1965), preserve & sustain the use & study Thailand No (1997), No (2007) Timor Leste Yes (2002), Tetum & NLs valued & developed Vietnam No (1992)

Languages of Instruction Country Languages of Instruction Brunei Darussalam Malay, English Cambodia Khmer, 5 LLs Indonesia Indonesian Lao PDR Lao Malaysia Malay, English, Tamil, Mandarin, some LLs Myanmar Burmese Philippines Filipino, English, some LLs Singapore English Thailand Thai, some LLs Timor Leste Portuguese, Tetum Vietnam Vietnamese, some LLs

Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal? Country Local languages as medium of instruction - allowed/legal? Brunei Darussalam No Cambodia Yes Indonesia Lao PDR ? Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor Leste Vietnam

Languages-in-education: SEA National languages used as the main media Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore use several languages as media of instruction (including English) Brunei, Laos and Singapore do not use local languages at all Laos uses national language only Myanmar has NFE in LLs by NGOs only Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have pilot MLE projects which use local languages Cambodia, Thailand and Timor Leste reviewing their language-in-education policies (inclusion of local languages?)

Regional Trends in the Use of Local Languages in Education Promising pilots in several SE Asian countries Increased interest in the use of local languages by govt agencies, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs Local languages used more in NFE than FE Local languages used orally quite widely, even without official endorsement NGOs provide more education in local languages than governments Policies on paper vs. implementation & practice

Thank you! kimmo_kosonen@sil.org

Key Issues 1 – Language-in-education policies Rationale for policies supporting the use of local languages: Educational efficiency and quality Social, political, and economic participation Social equality & equity Language endangerment, maintenance, and revitalization Multilingualism, pluralism Human rights

Key Issues 2 – Language-in-education policies Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: Economic factors - Multilingual education is too costly National unity - Using many languages in education disintegrates the nation Power issues - Distribution of power, decentralization

Key Issues 3 – Language-in-education policies Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: Misunderstanding of language & education issues and multilingualism - Using several media of instruction confuses students, - Using non-dominant languages will delay the learning of dominant (national, official, international) languages, - Parents want the national/international language only, as they don’t understand multilingual approaches

Key Issues 4 – Language-in-education policies Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: Technical and ‘logistical’ challenges - Non-dominant languages: no orthographies, ‘modern’ terminology & standard form - No literature and learning materials - No teachers speaking non-dominant languages - Multilingual classrooms / linguistic diversity in schools - Minority communities not interested (or this is what the decision-makers think) - MLE not seen as high priority by donors / program implementers

Key Issues 5 – Language-in-education policies Rationale for monolingual and elitist policies: Policies vs. implementation - Supportive policies exist in documents, but policies not implemented Colonial “legacy” and example - Colonialists supported elitist and dominant language only-policies - Major issue in Africa, less so in Asia Language classification

Language classification Ethnicity vs. language e.g. the Thai in Vietnam Nationality Language (population) Tai Dam (699,000) Tai Don (280,000) Thai (1,370,000) Phu Thai (209,000) Tai Daeng (140,000) Tai Thanh (20,000)

Additional issues Role of media (TV, Radio, Internet, print) Role of English